London 2012 Olympics: Australia's quartet post the world's third fastest time to leave Great Britain trailing

A superbly drilled Australian squad landed a telling blow on their biggest
rivals’ home track on Sunday when they recorded the third fastest time in
history, 3min 54.615sec, to post a national record and defeat Great Britain
in the team pursuit final.

The Aussie quartet of Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Alexander Edmondson and Michael Hepburn were exceptional and the multi-talented Cameron Meyer is likely to be added to the mix for the World Championships in Melbourne in April so there is definitely more to come.

Great Britain were not without hope, though. Their time of 3-56.330 is world class in its own right and was by some margin the best recorded by the team on parade - Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas.

Nor was it a textbook ride in anyway. Thomas went veering off course at one stage in mid-race after touching Kennaugh’s back wheel which caused some disruption while Burke, who has been suffering from shingles recently, dropped out with 1km to go, leaving the British the impossible task of chasing the Aussies who were still firing on all cylinders.

“Even if we hadn’t had the mishaps, the Aussies were the best team on the night,” admitted Clancy, the lead off man for Great Britain and a gold medallist from four years ago in Beijing. “But we are not in a bad postion at all. This is as quick as we were going at this stage in the last Olympic cycle.

“We appreciate we are up against it - they are a team of superstars - but we won’t be throwing in the towel. I wouldn’t say they have landed a psychlogical blow; it is only a threat and a problem if we perceive it as that. There are still six months to go.